Good French.
It’s always amazing how good Japanese voice actors are and how everyone sounds the same 13 years later. Most of them did voice their characters on these past years’ SRW games etc too, so they surely had the time to get back into it. There was the Very Merry Xmas arc adapted into a Youtube drama CD too. Meaning it’ll get skipped here.
FMP IV is supposed to be 12 episodes, but according to the staff list they revealed, episode 7 will still be in the Namsak arc. They can’t skip the notTchernobyl arc which comes later as it’s way too important and reveals the secrets of FMP. Taking this into account, it’s actually impossible FMP IV adapts till the end. Which is weird as SPOILER: the Invisible Victory subtitle refers to the final battle. Gatou is writing all the scripts so maybe he rewrote the whole story to make it fit but then again I don’t think it’s possible. I think the most logical choice is they’ll announce a Invisible Victory Final movie at the end of the 12th episode.
The sad people who skipped Fumoffu when watching the series thinking it’s just “extra dumb things” must be eating their Savages now.
I really liked the episode. I’m not bothered by CG too, though I hope they handle the mecha action well in the upcoming episodes. Some people in the comment section of the ANN article I linked above said the staff listed is very good so I’m looking forward to it. I’m not a sakuga aficionados so I didn’t bother checking myself.
Maybe it’s just my imagination but even if Horiuchi is still the chara designer, I get the feeling the faces are more “Xebec” like now? Again I’m not an animation aficionados so I may be saying dumb things.
I think the one thing that can be called a flaw in this first episode is how the dialogue scenes are presented in a really bland way. Except for a few camera changes. There’s some good ideas like the very short focus on Kaname’s lips at some point of the confrontation with Leonard, but most of the dialogues feel like watching a low budget RPG’s cutscenes (See Ni no Kuni 2)
As I already explained when FMP IV got announced in 2015, while I’m extremely happy Gatou maanged to convince the bastards at Kadokawa to make more anime of a mostly finished product, I was actually not that hyped at first. Over the years my FMP hunger got satiated with Sigma and with SRW. And FMP IV won’t have a scene with Sousuke calling Ranka a slut, or going “hey I don’t debate during decisive battles I’m not a Gundam pilot”. More Clouseau is still good though as he’s one of my favorite characters ever, looking forward to more Fowler Sugita too. And KUDAN MIRA.
I also wonder why they credited Sigma. Though I guess it’s normal to also credit the manga adaptation along with the original novel and I’m just thinking too much. I actually still haven’t read the LN fully, so I’m not sure if Sigma had differences with it besides the TSR only elements which they reworked again (Bruno being a woman etc). Maybe there will be Sigma only things in IV.
Nekketsu Nikki 